1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for treating sewage at its source, for example, at a residence or business. The apparatus substantially separates the sewage into its solid and liquid components and then incinerates the solid component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, sewage is disposed of in one of the following three ways: municipal sewer system, private cesspool or private septic tanks.
A municipal sewer system requires a connection from a toilet to a sewage treatment plant. The sewage is carried through pipes to the plant by large quantities of fresh water. Such treatment plants typically employ chemical and bacterialogical treatment methods for decomposing and purifying the sewage.
While generally effective, the municipal sewer system does have some substantial deficiencies. One deficiency is encountered primarily in urban areas where sewer systems are common. The problem arises with the fixed capacity of the sewer system. Sewers and sewage treatment plants cannot respond to urban growth. Because new buildings need sewer connections, this problem has lead to a moratorium on new construction in some areas. Where capacity has been exceeded, severe pollution and environmental hazards have been created as a result of overflowing systems.
There is no simple solution to this problem. System expansion is extremely expensive and requires a substantial lead time. Private systems generally cannot be used because of lack of available space and health considerations.
In rural and suburban areas where land is more plentiful, private septic tanks and cesspools have been employed. Both systems work by bacterial breakdown of the solid waste and subsequent drainage into leaching fields or overflow tanks. These systems both require large amounts of fresh water and are subject to clogging. The cesspool often has the added drawback of creating offensive odors. Each of these systems are subject to the percolating ability of the land as well as form of the terrain. The land must be able to diffuse the sewage properly. This is difficult in rocky areas. At the same time, the land cannot be too wet such that sewage travels to ground water. The terrain also is limited as to its form. A cesspool will not work well if the terrain is steep and the sewage simply runs out of the pool.
Several sewage treatment systems have been devised that treat sewage at the source.
One system, U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,317, uses grinders to pretreat the sewage and holding tanks for subsequent bacterial breakdown. This system is not only mechanically complex but presents many of the same operational problems associated with septic tanks.
Another system, U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,133, uses a gravity filtration system to separate the aqueous component and microwaves to incinerate the solid waste. The filter medium in this device is easily clogged over time necessitating frequent maintenance adding to an already high expense.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved sewage treatment system.
Another object is to provide an incinerator-based sewage treatment system.